Snowfall
by BogiBear
Summary: A Lancaster tragedy one-shot.


Snowfall

A RWBY fic, I suppose

* * *

A white landscape. The pristine background that was the mountains and tundra of Atlas painting a rugged, dangerous beauty against the bright blue sky, dotted with just a touch of cloud. Perfect, natural, beauty untouched by the reaches of humanity.

Save for one small imperfection.

A line of red splayed across the front of the mountainside.

From a distance, one could mistake it for a line of rose petals. Upon closer inspection, it became obvious this line was a line of death, blood soaking into the white snow to leave a dotted path miles long, growing ever longer as a figure, near indiscriminate from the dismal background trudged slowly southbound.

"Come on Ruby, we're almost there. Just a little longer." Jaune Arc's voice was coarse and rugged, a far cry from the comforting tone he wanted to convey.

The crimson figure on his back shifted slightly, and Jaune frowned wearily as another drop of blood dripped from the soaked bandage in her stomach.

"Just a little longer. Once were in Mantle, we can get a doctor. You're gonna live Ruby, we both are."

She laid her head on his shoulder and a tear pricked at his as he heard her force another ragged breath in and out. His heart skipped a beat, as it had for the last hundred, thousand breaths. Every breath sounded like the last.

"You're gonna make it. We're gonna make it." He said, in a voice too quiet and sad to be meant for her.

She raised her head from his shoulder to look in his eyes and giggled – or tried, rather, it came out as more of a pitiful cough. Her voice came out course and low, courtesy of a battle fought for far too long. "Remember when we first met? Our biggest problem was getting lost at Beacon. Remember Beacon? It feels like years since we were there."

A few tears trickled down his face. "Don't talk like that Ruby. We're gonna almost there. We're gonna make it."

"Remember when you first asked me on a date? I was so–"

"Ruby, Stop!"

She sighed and put her cheek back down on his shoulder. "Jaune, I'm not gonna make it. We both know–"

"NO!" He roared, and near doubled his speed, pushing his exhausted legs to the brink.

"Jaune, I want you to remember me how I was in Beacon. How I was before all this. Before I was a murderer."

Tears began to flow freely down his face as he pushed himself even harder. He couldn't be too weak. Not now… Not anymore. "You're not a murderer Ruby. What we did, we had to do. You're gonna live, and we'll go back to Beacon. I promise."

She laughed. "Don't promise me that Jaune. Just… just leave me behind. You can make it if you go back alone."

He shook his head, tears still falling freely from his face. "No Ruby, I can't. I can't make it alone. N-Not anymore."

His legs finally collapsed under him and he tumbled a few feet, dropping his precious, precious cargo in the cold, unyielding snow.

"Ruby!" He cried, crawling back up the slight incline to where she lay on her back, silver eyes gazing into the bright blue expanse above them.

"Come on Ruby, I need you to help me get you on my back." He tried to stand, only to find his exhausted legs being uncooperative, as he fell back to his arms in the snow.

"Jaune–"

"We need to keep moving. Get on my back. I can keep going on my hands and knees. We can crawl."

"Jaune–"

"If only these damned legs would keep going." He laughed hysterically. "Totally useless. If only–"

"Jaune!" He was snapped from his hysteria as he saw the tears in her eyes. "Please. I want to go on a happy memory."

"No… but–but it's not fair!" He screamed into the expanse of white and blue around and above him before turning back to the girl before him. "It's not fair Ruby, you can't–you can't! What about your dreams! Our dreams! What about the house–you can't go before we build that! What about my homemade cookies– I still owe you a batch!" His strength left him. "Please Ruby… you can't go. We have so much to do together..."

She let out a small, torturous sob and looked pleadingly to him, tears flowing and freezing on her deathly pale face. "P-Please Jaune. I want to go on with something happy." She raised one hand towards him slowly.

He took it silently and held it like a lifeline.

"Jaune… Do you love me?"

"Yes. Yes Ruby, I love you and I always will."

She smiled a small, genuine small that seemed to warm even the frigid ice of the landscape and of Jaune's heart.

"I-I love you too." She looked up into his eyes. "T-Thank you, Jaune."

The muscles of her face fell and her smile left, taking the warmth with it, leaving nothing but the cold, cold, snow around them for miles and a calm expression on her face, too calm to be one of sleep.

Jaune howled an inhuman roar, the sound echoing around the canyon for miles, probably bringing all kinds of Grimm to them. And so what if they come? Bring Beowolves, bring Ursai, bring a goddamn Goliath, Jaune couldn't care less anymore.

Jaune fell into the ground next to her fresh corpse, the strength finally leaving his body after days of abusing it. The only movement it allowed him was the sobs racking his chest.

"I can't do it alone anymore, Ruby. I won't."

Jaune lay, crying at her side, his sobs slowly dying out and the tears freezing to his cheeks in the frigid landscape.

"I loved you, Ruby." Jaune closed his eyes, letting the darkness overtake him. It was better than the stark white outside anyways. "I truly did."

Jaune finally, finally, let himself succumb to the sleep, knowing it would be his last.

The snow blew relentlessly off the top of the mountain, slowly covering any trace of the Huntsman and Huntress, leaving nothing but a white, pristine, endless landscape.


End file.
